Omnidirectional Treadmill Research Articles

3A1-J06 アリ搭乗型移動ロボットANTAM の開発 第3報 : アリ計測システムの改良および評価(バイオミメティクス・バイオメカトロニクス)

We had been developing new experimental equipment which is based on robotics technology. We named this equipment as ANTAM (ANT Activates Machine). ANTAM is the ants-driven robot. However, previous system had some problems: measurement accuracy, mechanical durability and mobility. In this paper, we improved a camera-based motion capture system, and an omnidirectional treadmill system for ants. We also changed a driven-mechanism by using omnidirectional wheels. As a result of the experiment, the ANTAM has enough ability to measure the ant motion, but difficult to move same trajectory of ant with keeping same direction.

Learning to walk in virtual reality

This article provides longitudinal data for when participants learned to travel with a walking metaphor through virtual reality (VR) worlds, using interfaces that ranged from joystick-only, to linear and omnidirectional treadmills, and actual walking in VR. Three metrics were used: travel time, collisions (a measure of accuracy), and the speed profile. The time that participants required to reach asymptotic performance for traveling, and what that asymptote was, varied considerably between interfaces. In particular, when a world had tight turns (0.75 m corridors), participants who walked were more proficient than those who used a joystick to locomote and turned either physically or with a joystick, even after 10 minutes of training. The speed profile showed that this was caused by participants spending a notable percentage of the time stationary, irrespective of whether or not they frequently played computer games. The study shows how speed profiles can be used to help evaluate participants' proficiency with travel interfaces, highlights the need for training to be structured to addresses specific weaknesses in proficiency (e.g., start-stop movement), and for studies to measure and report that proficiency.

CyberWalk

Despite many recent developments in virtual reality, an effective locomotion interface which allows for normal walking through large virtual environments was until recently still lacking. Here, we describe the new CyberWalk omnidirectional treadmill system, which makes it possible for users to walk endlessly in any direction, while never leaving the confines of the limited walking surface. The treadmill system improves on previous designs, both in its mechanical features and in the control system employed to keep users close to the center of the treadmill. As a result, users are able to start walking, vary their walking speed and direction, and stop walking as they would on a normal, stationary surface. The treadmill system was validated in two experiments, in which both the walking behavior and the performance in a basic spatial updating task were compared to that during normal overground walking. The results suggest that walking on the CyberWalk treadmill is very close to normal walking, especially after some initial familiarization. Moreover, we did not find a detrimental effect of treadmill walking in the spatial updating task. The CyberWalk system constitutes a significant step forward to bringing the real world into the laboratory or workplace.

Walking improves your cognitive map in environments that are large-scale and large in extent

This study investigated the effect of body-based information (proprioception, etc.) when participants navigated large-scale virtual marketplaces that were either small (Experiment 1) or large in extent (Experiment 2). Extent refers to the size of an environment, whereas scale refers to whether people have to travel through an environment to see the detail necessary for navigation. Each participant was provided with full body-based information (walking through the virtual marketplaces in a large tracking hall or on an omnidirectional treadmill), just the translational component of body-based information (walking on a linear treadmill, but turning with a joystick), just the rotational component (physically turning but using a joystick to translate) or no body-based information (joysticks to translate and rotate). In large and small environments translational body-based information significantly improved the accuracy of participants' cognitive maps, measured using estimates of direction and relative straight line distance but, on its own, rotational body-based information had no effect. In environments of small extent, full body-based information also improved participants' navigational performance. The experiments show that locomotion devices such as linear treadmills would bring substantial benefits to virtual environment applications where large spaces are navigated, and theories of human navigation need to reconsider the contribution made by body-based information, and distinguish between environmental scale and extent.